Build a Event Website: Templates, Design & Setup Guide

So you need to build an event website. And you have a certain “look” in mind. But…you don’t really want to spend your budget on custom, ground-up web design.

You want to focus on the event – but need a solid, useful website that will last for this event and for next year’s event.

Fortunately, website design has come a long way in the last few years.

Free templates, ready-made designs, and website builders allow anybody to get their event visible online. It allows professional designers to think more about brand voice & feel rather than counting pixels.

In the competitive, noisy, and fast-changing event industry, this shift has been incredible.

But starting the process of building an event website with an event website template can be a shortcut to some bad website choices.

Starting with a template or pre-made design is like starting your event space search based on existing decor.

Sure – good exiting decor & ambience is great. But it doesn’t really matter if your location, amenities, lease terms, and flex options do not make any sense.

Here’s the open secret among professional web designers – web pages are made of HTML & CSS with a few scripts thrown in. This means that…

…any website template can exist on any good web platform.

You can choose the platform and functionality that makes the most sense and “back into” your template design.

With that in mind, here’s brief 6 step guide to choosing the right event website template on the right website platform so that you can build the design & functionality that your business needs.

1. Define Your Needs, Budget & Assets

Since any generic template can transform into an event template with a little editing, they are very easy to market (and easy to mislead). It’s important to take stock of what you truly need, what your budget is, and what website assets you already own.

Needs

What functionality does your website need? Is it simply a digital “event flyer” – or does it need to be interactive? Do you need it to be quickly edited? How should it display your event details? Does it need to integrate with any 3rd party ticketing or payment apps like EventBrite or Facebook?

There are no right answers, but it’s important to at least think about them before reading template sales features.

Budget

Price is powerful, but it’s important to not only pay for value but to also pay for what matters. Think about your event budget. What do you spend money on and where do you cut back?

What is a new, repeat attendee worth? How does your site need to perform? How long do you expect this website to last? How much is your time worth – and how much will getting your website right save time? How much is your staff’s time worth – can a good website help them?

There are no right answers, but it’s important to at least think about them before shopping for a design/designer/template.

Assets

Pre-made event templates can go a long way…but the site still needs to be yours.

What photography do you have? Do you have a digitized logo? Do you know your fonts and brand colors? Do you have descriptions of your history, plans, attendees, speakers, guests? Do you have marketing partnerships with other local businesses or organizations? Do you already have established social profiles & reviews?

There are no right answers, but it’s important to at least think about them before getting swayed by nice mock-ups.

2. Understand Terminology & Options

Website terminology can be daunting – and frustrating with so many companies mixing, matching, & misusing jargon to sell their product. Here are the 5 core things you need to have a website on the Internet nowadays.

Domain Name

A domain is your “address” on the Internet. You lease it for a certain amount of time from ICANN via accredited “domain registrars”. You can buy one now and “point” it to your website later. Many website hosting companies also resell domain names to provide convenience. This is your [eventname.com].

Website Hosting

Your website is made up of computer files. And those files have to “live” somewhere. Website hosting companies rent space on specialized servers that store & serve your website files whenever someone goes to your website.

Website Software

A modern website usually consists of a lot of different files. While not 100% necessary, websites usually need software (ie, a “content management system”) to manage all the files – and make it easy for a human to edit & maintain.

There are hundreds of thousands of website software options.

For our purposes, we’ll be looking at WordPress.

WordPress powers more than 25% of the Internet. It has its critics and its evangelists. But it’s still the go-to solution for most event websites.

Because here’s the thing. WordPress is kind of like the 4 door sedan or light SUV of website software.

Yes – it is popular. But it’s popular because it fits most people’s needs. It’s versatile, manageable and suitable for so much.

If you hear people saying that “WordPress gets hacked” or “WordPress is not fast” – that is like someone saying that “sedans get broken into more often than semi-trucks” or “well, your Honda Accord can’t beat my Ferrari off the line.”

Yes – those criticisms are true..but not really. The upsides of WordPress for an event website greatly outweigh the disadvantages.

Plus – as we’ll see – there are ways to mitigate/eliminate WordPress’ disadvantages while keeping its advantages for building an event website (ie, ownership, marketing, integrations, etc).

Website Templates

As we saw in the introduction – templates are simply pre-made HTML & CSS (the computer languages that browsers use to yield a webpage). While not 100% necessary, mobile devices and different browsers make good design nearly impossible to do well from scratch. All good web designers use some sort of template/framework to start.

And there is a whole universe of pre-made event website templates that range from free templates to paid to bundled with custom design services.

There is one item to remember about templates. Website templates should focus on design, layout & content presentation – and not on functionality.

Website Plugins / Extensions

Plugins / extensions / apps are specific pieces of software that work with your website software to add functions or features to your website.

Possibly the biggest advantage of WordPress is how “extensible” it is. WordPress has a whole universe of free & premium plugins. These allow even small events to have very advanced functionality on their websites. In fact, many event software providers make WordPress plugins & compatible scripts that can drop right into a WordPress-powered site (ie, EventBrite, MeetUp, and others).

3. Choose & Setup Your Event Website Platform

There are a lot of excellent website platforms. There are infinite ways to combine, mix & match the 5 different pieces you need for a modern website.

But this guide would be worthless if it did not actually help you find a template & build a website that works.

We’ve already narrowed the website software down to WordPress. Now we need to pick where your WordPress software will live & how it will work with your templates & plugins.

There are two main options here – “self-hosted” WordPress and WordPress.com.

Disclosure -I receive customer referral fees from companies mentioned on this website. All data & opinions are based on my professional experience as a paying customer or consultant to paying customers.

Self-hosted WordPress

WordPress is free, open-source, community supported software. You can download it, install it anywhere, and use it however you like.

When you “self-host” WordPress, you get complete freedom but also have complete responsibility. It’s like owning your own event space. You can do whatever you want…but you’re also the one to call the plumber or landscaper when something goes wrong.

That said, installing WordPress with a good business hosting company makes all the difference. A good hosting company can provide the support, security & services that can minimize the risks of maintaining your own self-hosted WordPress.

Upside: If you self-host your WordPress software, you can download & use basically any theme or plugin that you want. Developers & consultants are used to the setup. It is future-proof, and it saves a good bit of money compared to other options.

Downside:You are in charge of technical aspects. Sure – InMotion provides support and consultants can provide expertise, but you are ultimately in charge of everything. For anyone who doesn’t want to deal with technical issues at all – self-hosting WordPress is not ideal.

WordPress.com

WordPress.com is a “hosted service” run by the originator of WordPress software. It’s an all-in-one service that bundles a limited version of WordPress software with hosting, software, support, and services all into one monthly plan.

If self-hosting WordPress is like owning your own building, then using WordPress.com is like leasing a pre-built storefront. You can do all the customizations that you want “inside” your building, but the maintenance and boring bits are not your responsibility.

4. Choose & Setup Your Event Website Template

Now that you know what you have and you know what you need – you can dive in finding the right pre-made event template for your website.

When you are shopping, keep a few things in mind.

Ignore the mock-up photography and logo designs. Often, a template will only look a certain way due to the mock-up photography.

Focus on the layout of a given template.

Look beyond the homepage. Look at how the subpages and unique pages are presented.

Remember that any template can be reproduced as a WordPress Theme or template. If you see a Squarespace, Weebly, Wix, Drupal, etc template, it is better to convert that template to WordPress than to lock into that platform simply for the design. Again, that would be like choosing your event space based on pre-built decor. It’s better to choose the right building or location and spend money redoing the decor on your own.

Self-hosted WordPress Templates

With a self-hosted WordPress install, you have a basically unlimited choice of templates. Here are a few places to look for high-quality options.

WordPress.com Templates

With a WordPress.com Business Plan, you can not only upload template choices from sites listed above – you also get unlimited access to WordPress.com’s premium templates. These all have advanced customization options so that you can edit them.